Page 74 of When We Were Young

I busy myself rearranging the cakes and go round to the other side of the counter to check it but this doesn’t deter Magda. ‘Your daughter, she was… how do you say… an accident?’

I lose my rag. ‘Look, these questions… they’re all ratherpersonal, don’t you think, Magda?’

‘Not at all,’ she says to my utter exasperation. ‘You didn’t marry the father. You are young to have a teenager. I am saying what is obvious. It is not personal.’

‘But––’

‘My son was also an accident.’

With that bombshell, the spotlight shifts from me to her, and I’m much more comfortable with that. Magda tells me about her sixteen-year-old son, the after-school art club she runs at his old primary school, and her art student years back in Krakow.

And I wonder what else we might have in common.

Chapter 35

February 1996

Will’s shadow stretched along the path ahead, merging with Emily’s in the low winter sun. When she said she’d never been, he couldn’t wait to show her around Richmond Park. And so far, it hadn’t disappointed. They’d already witnessed a parakeet flypast, a drilling woodpecker, and a majestic stag – all within the first ten minutes.

‘You’re right,’ she said as they strolled, ‘bumping into Aidan at the station was weird. He never gets the train, and he was comingintothe station as I was getting off the train, but when we finished talking, he walked out. He wasn’t there for any other reason than to talk to me.’

‘It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d been hanging around waiting for you to get off the train.’ Will knew all about doing that. ‘What did he say to you?’

‘He acted surprised to see me, and of course he knew I’d ask what happened to his face, and when I did, he said “ask Will”.’

‘I swear to God, Emily, I was defending myself.’

She changed the subject, ‘So, I’m finally moving out of my parents’ place. I’ve found a flat with a group of college friends.’

‘You have? Where?’

‘Balham. I can’t wait to get out of my parents’ house.’

‘That’s great,’ he said, but he was gutted. It would take him ages to get to Balham. ‘When do you move?’

‘Next month.’

‘Do you need a hand moving your stuff with the van?’

‘Thanks, but my dad said he’d take me. It’s furnished, so I won’t need much. You’ll have to visit, though.’

‘I’d like that. I’m looking for somewhere myself. Any spare rooms in your flat?’ he joked.

She laughed. ‘No. We’ve even got someone using the lounge as a bedroom.’

‘How many of you?’

‘Four of us. You met Scott, remember? He helped us move the sculpture that time?’

‘Scott – yeah. Expensive trainers, covered in paint.’

She smiled. ‘That’s the one. He found this cool flat – there’s a balcony at the front and one at the back. My friend Miranda is taking the other bedroom and one of Scott’s mates will be in the lounge.’

‘Sounds cosy.’

‘My room’s the smallest, too.’

Did she have a double bed? Imagining her room made him lose his train of thought for a moment, then his mobile phone rang.

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